Sony Tried To Trademark 'Let's Play,' Got Smacked Down

Last year, Sony quietly rummy master tried to trademark the term “Let’s Play”, which they want to use for marketing, but which everyone else associates with videos of people playing games on the internet. Thankfully, the USPTO is having none of it. A law firm involved in disputing Sony’s application filed a letter of protest a couple of weeks back, citing evidence of how ubiquitous the term is online and arguing “the term ‘Let’s Play’ rummy modern is generic and…Sony rummy nabob should not have exclusive rights over it.”cnx.cmd.push(function(){cnx({"playerId":"e3616d04-4972-4839-a63a-c6975e2e9731","settings":{"advertising":{"macros":{"AD_UNIT":"/23178111854/od.kotaku.com/article","CHILD_UNIT":"article","POST_ID":"1755555475","POST_TYPE":"post","CHANNEL":"uncategorized","SECTION":"","SUBSECTION":"","CATEGORIES":"uncategorized","TAGS":"playstation","NOP":"0"},"timeBeforeFirstAd":0}}}).render("cnx-player-main")}); Today, the firm say the USPTO agrees, and Sony’s application has been refused. You might have seen something like this reported elsewhere a few weeks back, but the firm—McArthur—say that news was premature. “The previous ‘rejection,’ widely misreported a few weeks ago, was in reality just a minor nuisance to Sony”, they say. “This rejection is far more lethal to Sony’s trademark application.” Get outta here, Sony.